Customers earn loyalty credits for frequenting service providers. These credits appear in various units of measurement but most often take the form of “points” or, in the case of air travel, “miles”.
Service providers assign a currency value to points. Most often, this value is used for internal accounting purposes. Often, points also have an external currency value, allowing marketers of related goods and services to purchase blocks of points to be offered to customers as incentives for ancillary purchases. For example, sometimes credit card providers allow customers to convert points to actual cash value on their statements, while others allow customers to donate to a charity which has a tax benefit.
Other types of programs have trapped value. For example, cell phone providers offer minutes of calling time. Gift card providers offer gift cards containing value exchangeable only with a particular provider.
For purposes of this application, the term “points” covers all forms of value including, but not limited to, loyalty points and miles.
Present day programs offer a limited number of ways to redeem and use points. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a value management system that offers more ways to exchange and redeem points.